September 20, 2017

Strong Words From The WSJ Editors

When Donald Trump claimed in March that he’d had his “wires tapped” prior to the election, the press and Obama officials dismissed the accusation as a fantasy. We were among the skeptics, but with former director James Comey’s politicized FBI the story is getting more complicated.

CNN reported Monday that the FBI obtained a warrant last year to eavesdrop on Paul Manafort, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager from May to August in 2016. The story claims the FBI first wiretapped Mr. Manafort in 2014 while investigating his work as a lobbyist for Ukraine’s ruling party. That warrant lapsed, but the FBI convinced the court that administers the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to issue a second order as part of its probe into Russian meddling in the election.

Guess who has lived in a condo in Trump Tower since 2006? Paul Manafort.

Mr. Comey told Congress in late March that he “had no information that supports those [Trump] tweets.” Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was even more specific that “there was no such wiretap activity mounted against—the President-elect at the time, or as a candidate, or against his campaign.” He denied that any such FISA order existed. Were they lying?

The warrant’s timing may also shed light on the FBI’s relationship to the infamous “ Steele dossier.” That widely discredited dossier claiming ties between Russians and the Trump campaign was commissioned by left-leaning research firm Fusion GPS and developed by former British spy Christopher Steele—who relied on Russian sources. But the Washington Post and others have reported that Mr. Steele was familiar to the FBI, had reached out to the agency about his work, and had even arranged a deal in 2016 to get paid by the FBI to continue his research.

The FISA court sets a high bar for warrants on U.S. citizens, and presumably even higher for wiretapping a presidential campaign. Did Mr. Comey’s FBI marshal the Steele dossier to persuade the court?

They emphasize a certain irony:

All of this is reason for House and Senate investigators to keep exploring how Mr. Comey’s FBI was investigating both presidential campaigns. Russian meddling is a threat to democracy but so was the FBI if it relied on Russian disinformation to eavesdrop on a presidential campaign. The Justice Department and FBI have stonewalled Congressional requests for documents and interviews, citing the “integrity” of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

...

Mr. Comey investigated both leading presidential campaigns in an election year, playing the role of supposedly impartial legal authority. But his maneuvering to get Mr. Mueller appointed, and his leaks to the press, have shown that Mr. Comey is as political and self-serving as anyone in Washington. No investigation into Russia’s role in the 2016 campaign will be credible or complete without the facts about all Mr. Comey’s wiretaps.

There was a time when the intelligence community believed that Putin's goal was to de-legitimize the eventual winner, not to pick one. Contrary though that may be to the Hillary/DNC whinging and blame-shifting, maybe they were right the first time.

--There was a time when the left distrusted the intelligence community more than they did the right.--

Yeah. I noted the satisfying irony of Juan Williams talking about how much he trusts the CIA and FBI a thread or two ago, but fill in the blank for the lefties who now adore any and all shadowy spook activities and claims.

A secret court that approves 99% of warrants sure sounds vulnerable to abuse. Good thing we had Loretta Lynch signing off on the requests, so that no funny business could possible come out of the DOJ...

Last Saturday, my 2 year old granddaughter helped her great grandfather blow out his 86th birthday cake candles. As customary at our family gatherings, a crude but loving song of congratulations broke out for Hadley and Great Bumpa, so I sing it for you now James D

Hooray for James D, he's got class
Hooray for James D, he's a horses ass

Yes, the LIBOMARX PARTY loves them some CIA,NSA,FBI etc, and Bernie Sanders who HONEYMOONED, (EWWWWWW) in RUSSIA is a staunch Patriot.
The WOMAN who colluded with The Rapist and Rodham, signs off on spying warrants against REPUBLICANS.

No problem here, no need to increase your ammo supply. "Our Democracy" is alive and well.

I have been following the Moore/Strange election on Conservative Treehouse.

From what I can discern, Strange gets the reputation of GOPe because the corrupt governor appointed him and McConnell backs him. However, the governor was asked by Jeff Sessions to appoint someone who would be loyal to President Trump's policies, and so Strange has been proven to be. McConnell supports him because he is an incumbent senator.

Loyalty is very important to President Trump, hence his backing.

Moore, according to several Alabamans on CTH, seems to be a grandstander who is only interested in social issues like the 10 Commandments and getting rid of gay marriage. No one really knows his position on taxes or trade, for example.

My personal opinion is that he will behave much as Cruz did with the showboating filibusters and stuff like that. He is one of those "principled" conservatives who will operate like Rand Paul, who is not a reliable vote on anything to do with healthcare other than saying no to everything.

An interesting dynamic is set up this weekend with President Trump appearing with Strange and Sarah Palin and Sebastian Gorka appearing with Moore.

I believe we see another reason why Gorka is no longer at the White House. He obviously goes off on his own agenda, as can be seen here.

In addition, some Alabamans think that Moore will bring democrats to the polls to vote for the democrat, and that there are some GOP voters who will not vote for Moore.

Current polls have them almost dead even.

I would be intersted to see if my assessment is in tune with what's going on, so if Beasts is around I would appreciate his opinion.

I have no dog in this hunt as I can't vote and cannot donate. Just an observer.

Re the Sanders honeymoon in the USSR:
Andrew Sullivan, in the course of blasting All Things Hillary, burned that factoid into my memory.

And yet she was so bad a candidate, she still only managed to squeak through in the primaries against an elderly, stopped-clock socialist who wasn’t even in her party, and who spent his honeymoon in the Soviet Union.

Effort underway to get AL Dems to reregister as Independents to help Moore win the open primary. Reliably Dem AL trial lawyers association urging folks to vote for Moore. Strange on the ballot is a sure win, but Moore is very iffy imo.

An interesting dynamic is set up this weekend with President Trump appearing with Strange and Sarah Palin and Sebastian Gorka appearing with Moore.

This seems like a win-win setup.

Moore, the birther, isn't like Taqiyya Ted in any way, shape or form.

Trump is returning loyalty because that is his MO. But, IMO, he is ok with Moore. If not, he would have asked Palin and Gorka to butt out or support Strange. Palin and Gorka would have respected Trump out of the same loyalty.

I will change my opinion if Trump says something incredibly derogatory towards Moore. Until then, I think we are looking at political smoke and mirrors.

But his maneuvering to get Mr. Mueller appointed, and his leaks to the press, have shown that Mr. Comey is as political and self-serving as anyone in Washington.

Yup. I read the truthpundit who sites FBI sources (can't vouch) that say they Intel Community enlisted the UK to do the surveillance so that they could have deniability, but create more reason for a legit FISA warrant. I think Judge Nap said the same thing.

The fact that COMEY SOUGHT to have MUELLER made a SPECIAL COUNSEL (PROSECUTOR), and the fact that "curtains" Comey created a "memo" and had a LIBTARD friend leak it (admittedly), creates such a SHIT STEW of IMPROPRIETY as to be MIND BOGGLING.

But the MF'ING MFM will notice that soon. And Jeff Sessions will become A.G. at some point. Right?

“This would make for an incredible string of Senate hearings,” one federal law enforcement source said. “I don’t think they ever thought he (Trump) would win and information would come out about how they manipulated evidence.” [TP above]

The only scenario that makes sense to me is that BOzo et al were certain HC would win.

OT went to see Wind River last night. Strongly recommend it. Straight up story line, great acting. A bit like Longmire, but more of a spontaneous pace.

Re Pratt, he lives out here on our rock pile. I haven't run into him yet, but not sure I would recognize him if I did. Haven heard anyone mention his bride, so maybe they didn't hang out even when he wasn't working.

Ol' Yeller is on board for the Graham O-Care replacement. Says it isn't perfect but the best we can hope for now. I hope it penalizes Katshit and Fat RINO Bastard by making them have to figure out how to fund their Medicaid expansion.

BOzo dubbed himself the "First Pacific President". He's responsible for the naval leadership that produced U.S. gunboat sailors' humiliating surrender to Iranians, American ship's retrieval of underwater drone near Philippines interrupted by Chinese ship swooping in and stealing it as they impotently watched, and the two recent inexplicable and deadly collisions at sea. The idea of BOzo ordering a preemptive attack on NK is ludicrous.

President Trump humiliated Obammy wrt his birth certificate.
Revenge was their motive all along.
Obama was still wiretapping him as he welcomed him to the White House.
They don't come any more craven than that.

GUS - Don't forget Lurch's first honeymoon in Paris--the City of Love--secretly and illegally attempting to collude with the North Vietnamese who were in town. I bet the first Mrs. Lurch really enjoyed the trip although she probably paid for it herelf.
Sorry but I always love digging out this photo.

Tim Blair has a post reminiscing about how Reagan dealt with campus protestors and their sympathizers, with lots of great video. (High point: Reagan saying to some protestors at a speech, "Aw, shaddup!")

The first and foremost agenda must be to assemble a list of Trump officials who were spied on and the pretexts under which they were spied upon. The pattern will show the crime. And that’s what Obama and his allies are terrified of. It’s why Flynn was forced out using illegal surveillance and leaks. It’s why McMaster is protecting Susan Rice and the Obama holdovers while purging Trump loyalists at the NSC.

The left’s gamble was that the Mueller investigation or some other illegitimate spawn of the Obama eavesdropping would produce an indictment and then the procedural questions wouldn’t matter.

It’s the dirty cop using illegal eavesdropping to generate leads for a “clean” case against his target while betting that no one will look too closely or care how the case was generated. If one of the Mueller targets is intimidated into making a deal, the question of how the case was generated won’t matter.

This is a perenniial controversy depending on which web site you go to. Breitbart is convinced he is a villain and a globalist. Thomas Wictor points out that Trump is no dummy and if he were dissatisfied he would fire him.

This all gets complicated by the fact that Trump doesn't telegraph his thinking, which is good for getting stuff done but very hard on all of the back-seat drivers on social media.

My attitude is that if Trump feels McMaster isn't working out, he wouldn't hesitate to fire him. I see nothing happening which makes me think he is anything but who he appears to be.

re:passage of Graham's & Cassidy's healthcare bill - Graham has made several comments about how some Dems were going to have a hard time voting NO. I predict there will definitely be some Dems voting for the bill and it will pass with little trouble.

its all a show to distract from two things: a) whatever Trump is really doing, b)that all "D" will go unpunished as usual.

henry,

As you said on the last thread, Mueller is about to implode. He has usually been very cautious in the past. Not so in his "investigation" of the Russia connection. Recall that almost simultaneously with Trump's election this accusation was floated as the sole reason for Clinton's defeat. Mueller was brought in to make that case and he openly coordinated with the disgraced Comey to do it.

Yesterday I commented on the Mueller pre dawn raid of the Manafort home, for that's what it was, as a desperate attempt by the Special Counsel to get the Manafort family to serve up anything to validate a failing investigation. This wasn't the serving of a warrant. It was intimidation by a desperate man who knows the lid is about to blow off of the Capitol and drag his witch hunt down with it.

Whether the apparatus that was set up to destroy the Trump Presidency will be held accountable remains to be seen. We certainly can't rely on Jeff Sessions to unmask himself and bring indictments against the cabal. Even the Republicans in Congress are tippy toeing around the matter which leads one to wonder about their complicity in the conspiracy. And then there are the Awan brothers waiting in the wings with possible revelations that will make Obama's shadow government look like child's play.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign memoir rests on an astonishingly audacious lie: that the very FBI director who made her campaign possible by improperly sparing her from an indictment doomed it. A normal pol who had mishandled classified information as egregiously as Hillary would have felt eternal gratitude to Comey. Only an entitled ingrate like Hillary would have the gall to cast her savior as the chief thorn in her side.

Nor does Hillary acknowledge another in-kind contribution to her campaign from Comey: his willingness to serve as a cog in Obama’s campaign of political espionage against Trump. Obama’s team of Hillary partisans, which included among others John Brennan, Susan Rice, and Loretta Lynch, wanted Comey to snoop on Trumpworld and he duly did.

Curb Dive may be a liar and an ingrate but, gee, she sure can be surprisingly funny.

Can you imagine how personally gratifying it would be to roughly, very roughly, put McCain's shriveled neck in place in a guillotine and say "tell your Viet Cong friends in Hell that this is how it's done"?